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 The study of William Faulkner's impact on the literature of Latin America and the Caribbean has been a core theme of Faulkner studies over the course of the second half of the twentieth century. These studies have centered, however, almost exclusively on Spanish-speaking Latin America to the exclusion of Portuguese speaking Latin America.
Richardson points out that this trend, which started around the time James Irby's study on Faulkner and four Latin American writers came out in 1956, continues unabated in the form of published books, articles and dissertations that analyze Faulkner's impact on Hispanic Latin America every year. One is left feeling as though the research that has revealed connections between Faulkner and the great Spanish speaking authors we studied has not even been started comparing authors writing from Brazil during the peak of Faulkner's heyday in Latin America. The purpose of this three-part essay series is to examine some of the many ways the awesome literary presence of William Faulkner is reflected in Brazil - Latin America's largest, most populous, and most racially diverse country. There are several interesting points of entry into the study of Faulkner in Brazil. One is the connection between Faulkner and dependency theory, a theoretical innovation in sociology which stems from the postcolonial histories of Latin America. Another is to examine the similarities between Faulkner and the former confederate soldiers who emigrated to Brazil after the Civil War. We shall see that these conquered and colonized Southerners made an impact on Brazil that is felt to this very day. I will begin this three-part discussion, however; by using a third approach, which is to catalog Faulkner's actual experience in Brazil as described in George Monteiro's classic piece, Faulkner in Brazil. Monteiro cites the article published in O Estado de S. Paulo one day after Faulkner left the country in 1954, reminding readers that O Estado de S. Paulo was one of the first newspapers outside of the U.S. to call attention to William Faulkner's work at a time when Faulkner was not yet sufficiently known and appreciated in his own country (96-101). Monteiro's translation of the newspaper's interview with Faulkner offers some fascinating insights toward the understanding of Faulkner's presence in Brazil. Binge Drinking During Faulkner's six-day stay in São Paulo, he took almost no part in the International Writers' Congress he was to attend. It was reported that the severe spinal injury Faulkner suffered during his time in the military caused him to be afflicted by intense onslaughts of arthritic pain. For this reason, the public was told Faulkner was forced to miss the sessions in order to recover in his room at the Hotel Esplanada. The prevailing rumor, however, is that Faulkner was too intoxicated to function before such an audience. One legendary story has it that upon arrival in his hotel room, Faulkner threw open a window, looked out over the rapidly industrializing city, muttered "I hate Chicago," and began a drinking binge that lasted the duration of his State Department sponsored stay. While this story is essentially true, the Brazilian record of what happened that on that first night and for the duration of this stay in São Paulo reads differently, but only in the details. Faulkner was greeted at the airport and shown the city of São Paulo by Oscar Pimentel, a writer and critic who, at the time, was perhaps the foremost Faulknerian in Brazil. Pimentel recorded his observation of Faulkner's stay in various articles published at the time and later. The most diverse cuisine in South America was available to Faulkner thanks to the influence of the influx of immigrants from around the world who came to São Paulo to contribute to the economic development of Brazil. Faulkner was taken to dine at a Russian restaurant on Rua Ana Cintra and did not hesitate to order substantial amounts of vodka to start things off. The next morning, Faulkner was taken to an art museum he had read about in Time magazine. After he lay down on the floor of the museum complaining that the back pain from his war injury was acting up, Pimentel deduced what was really going on. He noted that Faulkner, who never actually fought in WWI, faked back pains when he felt in need of a scotch. Duly alerted, the Museum Director scared Faulkner up a double. Sure enough, the scotch helped him slowly return to an upright position, and the "pain" in his back to disappear almost immediately thereafter. Having drunk too much in his hotel room that night, Faulkner was sick the next day and was forced to cancel the press conference scheduled for 4 pm that afternoon. He did manage to attend, however, the press conference that was scheduled for the day after. This report describes Faulkner as a short man with lively eyes that gave off the impression of great timidity and abstraction. Faulkner was unable to hide his obvious hesitancy to address the group, but finding himself surrounded by the empathy and admiration of all present, he commented first on why he was horrified of public speaking. Said Faulkner, "a writer should write, not talk." In his reply to a question concerning what it is that differentiates North Americans from South Americans, Faulkner prefaced his response with the observation that in reality such differences are always relative. Faulkner went on to state, however, that suffering among men creates a common language based on solidarity that is independent of their social condition, color or religion. When asked what his impressions of South America were and what he thought about the problems facing the continent, Faulkner's admitted that he was not directly familiar with that which is most important to South Americans. Nevertheless, Faulkner accurately surmised, in the final analysis, their problems can't be much different than those of North Americans. When asked what, in his view, was the principal problem facing North Americans in general, Faulkner, however, answered this question immediately - the problem of race. Pimentel notes how Faulkner used the minimum number of words possible, and spoke in such a way that it was apparent he was fully conscious of each syllable. "In my view, one of the preeminent problems on this continent is the problem of race," said Faulkner. "There can be, in this sense, not the least prejudice, for there are no races that are inferior or superior." "But how about the people of São Paulo?" someone else asked. Faulkner's response to this question is salient, for it brings the issue of Brazilian economic development to the fore. "... I have not yet had an opportunity to get to know this great country, and I confess that I'm dying to see your coffee plantations, your people... But there's one thing I can tell you: I get the impression from what I have seen that the people of São Paulo are much more the citizens of São Paulo than they are of Brazil." Faulkner's impression was absolutely correct. The great depression of the 1930s cut off Brazilian imports, and WWII created a demand for Brazilian exports. These two factors combined to finally allow Brazilian industry to develop during the era of Getúlio Vargas, making São Paulo into a continental boom town. After Vargas's suicide in 1954, the exuberant president Juscelino Kubitschek helped keep Brazil's industrial boom alive and produce a widespread feeling that the Brazilian economy had evolved to such an extent that self-sustained national development was finally possible. The city's entrepreneurial elites, many of whom were European immigrants, wanted to raise the community's cultural level by making the University of São Paulo into a world class university; so USP hired a number of prestigious French professors to put Brazil on the intellectual map. It is, perhaps, ironic that social science at the University of São Paulo has business people to thank for its existence (Kane 29-30). As we shall see next, this very process of colonialization plays an important role in the novelistic structure of Faulkner's work. Endnotes Kane, Richard F. "The Sociology and Politics of Fernando Henrique Cardoso." M.S. thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University, 2004. Available at http://crab.rutgers.edu/%7Egoertzel/KaneThesis.doc Monteiro, George. "Faulkner in Brazil." Southern Literary Journal 16 (1983): 96-104. Richardson, Daniel C. "Towards Faulkner's Presence in Brazil: Race, History, and Place in Faulkner and Amado." South Atlantic Review 65.4 (2000):13-27. This is the first of a three-part series on William Faulkner's presence in Brazil. Richard F. Kane, from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Illinois State University, can be reached at
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Nice article and I'll read the rest at a later date